New Look to Google SERPS?

[Former Member]

I'm seeing a new look/design in the search pages today... at least I think so. Is everyone else seeing this or am I part of some type of test?

All the titles have been reduced to a single shorter line it seems and the font or styling seems different? I was actually quite confused at first haha.

Here's a screenshot:

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hey Ross,

Which part of the SERP are you referring to? Local?

 

[Former Member]

I was referring to the organic and the ads mainly... it seems like a different font and the titles have been shortened. Maybe I'm crazy?

 

[Dustybones]

@ Ross

We have been seeing this for a month or so.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Something similar happened to us on Firefox. Checked it in Chrome and it's the same as it has always been.

What browser are you using?

 

[Former Member]

Something similar happened to us on Firefox. Checked it in Chrome and it's the same as it has always been.

What browser are you using?

Firefox.. sounds like you're right!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Looks like it's a test. Being discussed here:

Google's New Search Results Design Test: Bigger & No Underlines

 

[Linda Buquet]

Mike just posted about this too and has heard it's supposed to go beyond test phase and roll out live.

New Look for Google Local Search Results | Understanding Google Places & Local Search

 

[Drew Goettemoeller]

Interesting. I wonder how long before there is a promoted local listing in the Google SERPS?

I know that you can have the location extensions in adwords, but I'm surprised it hasn't been looked at and/or tested at all.

 

[RadinaDisheva]

Has anyone noticed that the new SERP also shows your recent blog post(s) in the branded search results?

Take a look:

 

[Linda Buquet]

Google+ Local posts in the knowledge panel

Yes that's been happening for awhile now.

Not sure I would have showed your own brand search in the example, since you have so much bad press in the SERPs for your name.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Yes that's been happening for awhile now.

Not sure I would have showed your own brand search in the example, since you have so much bad press in the SERPs for your name.

Is that really her brand?

Or was she just using them as an example?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yep! She's from Bulgaria which is where the company is based.

 

[RadinaDisheva]

That's the only example I found plus apparently I'm not here to advertise. The bad press is from 2 years ago. A lot has changed since then and we have made radical changes to the way we conduct our business. We don't have anything to hide.

 

[Susan Walsh]

Re: New Look to Google SERPS?It

Mike Blumethal wrote about it today leading me to this tread. I thinks it's great that Google is showing G+ Posts in the panel. We provide G+ training, which includes local. It's a great way to show how important it is go start posting on Google+.

I've been seeing this for over a week now, maybe more and it hasn't changed back. For example Title Tags that we did for this business, most are being cutt off. Rule of thumb on length of a title tag is up to 70 characters (including spaces). We use the WordPress SEO plugin for Yoast and that's what it suggests. There's one complete title tag showing that we didn't use up all of the characters, the others are all cutt off, you don't see the complete title tag.

Looks to me like Google is keeping it this way. Need to update our trainings that include website optimization and title tags to lower the number of characters to use.

I'm using Chrome and Safari - see it in both browsers. The screengrab from Chrome.

 

[Keenan Glass]

Recent posts in KP is not that new or a part of this design and layout update. Title tags have always shown various character lengths across browsers.

If you ask me this has everything to do with driving more Adwords clicks. By changing up the look of the top PPC ads, users may be more inclined to click the top listings since they now look more like the traditional organic results.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

The title tag isn't based on characters anymore. It's based on pixels. Or at least that's been the rumor. Haven't checked it out for sure yet

 

[Dave]

I saw two good articles on this:

First in Moz: New Title Tag Guidelines & Preview Tool - Moz

later at Jim Rudnicks blog yesterday: Google’s New Web Search Results Display Differences! | CanuckSEO

Jim's blog piece sunk in. I'd seen the results but hadn't acted. Some of our smb sites have very critical GEO locations at the end. With the new design, we've lost them.

I've already made title tag changes. need those most critical words to show up for users!!!!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Also see this:

It's Time to Rethink Title Tag Strategy (Again) by Vertical Measures

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

One other thing to consider is that while Google is cutting off the titles, Google still looks at the entire title tag for keywords, etc. (as per the Moz article referenced in this thread). Of course this has always been the case. The point is, in an ideal world you would strive to have a title around 55 - 58 characters BUT if you have to go beyond that up to 70, just know the longer stuff is going to get cut off. So what does that tell you? Just be sure that your keywords are at the front of the line so they don't get cut off...which has always been a recommendation for SEO (putting keywords upfront in the title).

What this means for local SEO and local business owners is that it might make sense to leave the company name out of the title tag. I think traditionally we have always used title tags similar to this:

Bob's Plumbing | Residential and Commercial Plumbers

Well if your domain is BobsPlumbing.com or you can mention it in the description instead, leave the company name out of the title. There's no sense using up valuable real estate in the title tag if you can reference the company name elsewhere.

Travis